10 Tips for taking great photos of waterfalls

Waterfalls are one of nature’s finest gifts to us. From small, jungle falls to the raw power of giant, mountain cascades, the sound, freshness and smell of the kicked up water is sure to relax and inspire.

That said, have you ever struggled to get a great photo? You’re there, standing in front of this magnificent site but when you look at the picture you just kind of think meh. Well, you’re not alone. While waterfall pictures are some of the best, when done right, they are not easy.

Now I’m by no means a professional photographer (my dad is, so I learnt a few things) but I recently asked people to share some of their best waterfall photos for an Instagram feature but the response was so good, I thought I’d also turn it into a blog post too. So here you have it.

The Travel Blogs tips on taking great/better waterfall pictures

Slow your shutter speed

If you have a tripod great, if not then find a sturdy surface, use the three-second self-timer and slow your shutter speed down to capture that movement. If you don’t feel confident in full manual mode, most cameras have an S setting, this is shutter speed. You can put it anywhere from a quarter of a second to two seconds, depending on the speed of the water and lighting, and the camera will work out the rest. If you are comfortable with full manual, you don’t need me to tell you what to do!

Look for natural framing

Sometimes a photo of a waterfall can just be a little boring on its own. When you are there you can feel it, hear it, in a photo, sometimes those feelings just don’t come across. When trying to frame your picture, you could seek out rocks for the foreground or jungle, just something to throw a bit more interest in there.

Get creative with your angles

Get creative with the direction you are shooting. Can you look straight up at it? This can help to make it look bigger than it is or make the person looking at the photo feel they are close, the water is almost falling on them.

A post shared by TheTravelLeaf.com (@the.travelleaf) on Jul 5, 2017 at 9:03am PDT

Take a Wide Angle shot

Have a look around, is there more you can include in your photo than just the falls? As beautiful as waterfalls are, they are quite common, so what really gives your photo a sense of place and tells the person looking at it where it was taken . . . without words.

A post shared by life of brit | travel blog (@life.of.brit) on Jun 22, 2017 at 5:50pm PDT

Above all enjoy it

Hope you enjoyed reading, maybe you picked up a tip or two, maybe you didn’t and just enjoyed the photos. Either way, thanks for reading. If you have any tips to share, we’d love to hear them in the comments and remember this one thing, don’t let the camera distract you from enjoying the moment. You are there for you, great if you can take an awesome photo and share it to make everyone jealous, but don’t do it at the sacrifice of enjoying the moment yourself.

Oh wow! So many beautiful waterfall places in the world. I particularly enjoy the ones with a captured rainbow, so magical. The different angles also make for some pretty fantastic shots. Not a real photographer myself, but keeping that s button in mind!

I wish you had written this post earlier!! I have wasted 3 trips (picture-wise, the experience and the memories in my head are still great), one in Greece (Edessa) and two in Serbia (Gostilje and Prijepolje). My pictures look so bad!

I need general photography tips with the new camera I have bought as I am not able to get to grips with the different types of settings for different types of photos! All these points were really helpful for me! Thank you for posting!!!!

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Hi, I'm Matt and I started The Travel Blogs with inadequate technical know-how but a love of writing stories and taking pictures. This site is a place that I share blogs I like mixed in with my own travels.If you want to know more this site (and a little about me) then feel free to click here, if you don't then keep browsing, commenting, smiling and remember to check back frequently, as my technical knowledge progresses the site will evolve. Happy travels!